Lies, Deceit, and Bullshit in Law
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Lying and Asserting
Lying and Asserting Andreas Stokke — penultimate version, published in Journal of Philosophy, CX(1), 2013, 33–60 — Abstract The paper argues that the correct definition of lying is that to lie is to assert some- thing one believes to be false, where assertion is understood in terms of the notion of the common ground of a conversation. It is shown that this definition makes the right pre- dictions for a number of cases involving irony, joking, and false implicature. In addition, the proposed account does not assume that intending to deceive is a necessary condition on lying, and hence counts so-called bald-faced lies as lies. 1 Introduction This paper argues for a definition of lying. The definition is that you lie when you assert something you believe to be false. This definition is not new, and many philosophers have held it. Yet these proposals differ from each other in relying on different views of assertion. I argue that the account of assertion needed to define lying is the one familiar from the work of Stalnaker (1978), (1998), (2002) according to which to assert that p is to propose that p become common ground. So my definition of lying is that you lie when you say something you believe to be false and thereby propose that it become common ground. Traditionally, many philosophers – e.g., Augustine (1952 [395]b), Bok (1978), Williams (2002), Frankfurt (2005 [1986]) – have defined lying as saying what you believe to be false with the intent to deceive. But as pointed out by Carson (2006), Sorensen (2007), Fallis (2009), and others, this definition fails to do justice to the phenomenon of what Sorensen calls bald- faced lies. -
Memetics of Deception: Spreading Local Meme Hoaxes During COVID-19 1St Year
future internet Article Memetics of Deception: Spreading Local Meme Hoaxes during COVID-19 1st Year Raúl Rodríguez-Ferrándiz 1,* , Cande Sánchez-Olmos 1,* , Tatiana Hidalgo-Marí 1 and Estela Saquete-Boro 2 1 Department of Communication and Social Psychology, University of Alicante, 03690 Alicante, Spain; [email protected] 2 Department of Software and Computing Systems, University of Alicante, 03690 Alicante, Spain; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected] (R.R.-F.); [email protected] (C.S.-O.) Abstract: The central thesis of this paper is that memetic practices can be crucial to understanding deception at present when hoaxes have increased globally due to COVID-19. Therefore, we employ existing memetic theory to describe the qualities and characteristics of meme hoaxes in terms of the way they are replicated by altering some aspects of the original, and then shared on social media platforms in order to connect global and local issues. Criteria for selecting the sample were hoaxes retrieved from and related to the local territory in the province of Alicante (Spain) during the first year of the pandemic (n = 35). Once typology, hoax topics and their memetic qualities were identified, we analysed their characteristics according to form in terms of Shifman (2014) and, secondly, their content and stance concordances both within and outside our sample (Spain and abroad). The results show, firstly, that hoaxes are mainly disinformation and they are related to the pandemic. Secondly, despite the notion that local hoaxes are linked to local circumstances that are difficult to extrapolate, our conclusions demonstrate their extraordinary memetic and “glocal” capacity: they rapidly adapt Citation: Rodríguez-Ferrándiz, R.; other hoaxes from other places to local areas, very often supplanting reliable sources, and thereby Sánchez-Olmos, C.; Hidalgo-Marí, T.; demonstrating consistency and opportunism. -
Proffer, Plea and Cooperation Agreements in the Second Circuit
G THE B IN EN V C R H E S A N 8 D 8 B 8 A E 1 R SINC Web address: http://www.law.com/ny VOLUME 230—NO.27 THURSDAY, AUGUST 7, 2003 OUTSIDE COUNSEL BY ALAN VINEGRAD Proffer, Plea and Cooperation Agreements in the Second Circuit he Department of Justice over- Northern and Western districts provide sees 93 U.S. Attorney’s offices that proffer statements will not be used in throughout the country and any criminal proceeding, the Eastern and beyond. Thousands of criminal Southern agreements are narrower, T promising only that such statements will prosecutors in these offices are responsible for enforcing a uniform set of criminal not be introduced in the government’s statutes, sentencing guidelines and case-in-chief or at sentencing. Thus, Department of Justice internal policies. proffer statements in those districts may Among the basic documents that are be offered at detention hearings and criminal prosecutors’ tools of the trade are suppression hearings as well as grand proffer, plea and cooperation agreements. jury proceedings. These documents govern the relationship Death Penalty Proffer. The Eastern between law enforcement and many of the District’s proffer agreement has a provision subjects, targets and defendants whom defendant) to make statements to the that assures a witness or defendant that DOJ investigates and prosecutes. government without fear that those proffer statements will not be considered Any belief that these agreements are as statements will be used directly against the by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in deciding uniform as the laws and policies underly- witness in a later prosecution. -
Assertion and Hearsay
Volume 125 Issue 2 Winter 2021 Assertion and Hearsay Richard Lloret Follow this and additional works at: https://ideas.dickinsonlaw.psu.edu/dlr Part of the Civil Law Commons, Civil Procedure Commons, Common Law Commons, Courts Commons, Criminal Law Commons, Criminal Procedure Commons, Evidence Commons, Judges Commons, Jurisprudence Commons, Legal Education Commons, Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility Commons, Legal Profession Commons, Legal Writing and Research Commons, Litigation Commons, State and Local Government Law Commons, and the Supreme Court of the United States Commons Recommended Citation Richard Lloret, Assertion and Hearsay, 125 DICK. L. REV. 347 (2021). Available at: https://ideas.dickinsonlaw.psu.edu/dlr/vol125/iss2/3 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Reviews at Dickinson Law IDEAS. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dickinson Law Review by an authorized editor of Dickinson Law IDEAS. For more information, please contact [email protected]. \\jciprod01\productn\D\DIK\125-2\DIK202.txt unknown Seq: 1 10-FEB-21 13:14 Assertion and Hearsay Richard A. Lloret* ABSTRACT This article explores the characteristics and functions of as- sertion and considers how the term influences the definition of hearsay under Federal Rule of Evidence 801. Rule 801(a) de- fines hearsay by limiting it to words and conduct intended as an assertion, but the rule does not define the term assertion. Courts and legal scholars have focused relatively little attention on the nature and definition of assertion. That is unfortunate, because assertion is a robust concept that has been the subject of intense philosophic study over recent decades. -
Information Warfare, International Law, and the Changing Battlefield
ARTICLE INFORMATION WARFARE, INTERNATIONAL LAW, AND THE CHANGING BATTLEFIELD Dr. Waseem Ahmad Qureshi* ABSTRACT The advancement of technology in the contemporary era has facilitated the emergence of information warfare, which includes the deployment of information as a weapon against an adversary. This is done using a numBer of tactics such as the use of media and social media to spread propaganda and disinformation against an adversary as well as the adoption of software hacking techniques to spread viruses and malware into the strategically important computer systems of an adversary either to steal confidential data or to damage the adversary’s security system. Due to the intangible nature of the damage caused By the information warfare operations, it Becomes challenging for international law to regulate the information warfare operations. The unregulated nature of information operations allows information warfare to Be used effectively By states and nonstate actors to gain advantage over their adversaries. Information warfare also enhances the lethality of hyBrid warfare. Therefore, it is the need of the hour to arrange a new convention or devise a new set of rules to regulate the sphere of information warfare to avert the potential damage that it can cause to international peace and security. ABSTRACT ................................................................................................. 901 I. INTRODUCTION ......................................................................... 903 II. WHAT IS INFORMATION WARFARE? ............................. -
Lies, Bullshit and Fake News: Some Epistemological Concerns
Postdigital Science and Education https://doi.org/10.1007/s42438-018-0025-4 COMMENTARIES Open Access Lies, Bullshit and Fake News: Some Epistemological Concerns Alison MacKenzie1 & Ibrar Bhatt1 # The Author(s) 2018 What is the difference between a lie, bullshit, and a fake news story? And is it defensible to lie, bullshit, or spread fake stories? The answers are, unsurprisingly, complex, often defy simple affirmative or negative answers, and are often context dependent. For present purposes, however, a lie is a statement that the liar knows or believes to be false, stated with the express intention of deceiving or misleading the receiver for some advantageous gain on the part of the liar. On the standard definition of a lie, the liar’s chief accomplishment is deception—and it can be artful: When we undertake to deceive others intentionally, we communicate messages meant to mislead them, meant to make them believe what we ourselves do not believe. We can do so through gesture, through disguise, by means of action or inaction, even through silence. (Bok 1999[1978]: 13) The standard definition has, in the Western philosophical tradition, antecedents stretching all the way back to St Augustine. However, the classic definition may be too restrictive as not all lies are stated with the intention to deceive. Any number of statements can mislead through misapprehension, incomprehension, poor understand- ing of, or partial access to the facts. To mislead, further, is not the same as lying, or as serious, and we can rely less on a liar than we can on a person who misleads. -
Many People Are Saying…”: Applying the Lessons of Naïve Skepticism to the Fight Against Fake News and Other “Total Bullshit”1
View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by PhilPapers “Many people are saying…”: Applying the lessons of naïve skepticism to the fight against fake news and other “total bullshit”1 Jake Wright, Ph.D. [email protected] Abstract: ‘Fake news’ has become an increasingly common refrain in public discourse. The term itself has several uses, at least one of which constitutes Frankfurtian bullshit. After examining what sorts of fake news appeals do and do not count as bullshit, I discuss strategies for overcoming our openness to such bullshit. I do so by drawing a parallel between openness to bullshit and naïve skepticism—one’s willingness to reject the concept of truth on unsupported or ill- considered grounds—and suggest that this parallel indicates three principles for how we ought to combat our openness to fake news and other bullshit. First, the root causes of bullshit openness are not monolithic; we should adopt anti-bullshit strategies in recognition of this fact. Second, our efforts to overcome bullshit openness should be collaborative efforts to create an environment that allows for sustained interrogation of our bullshit openness, rather than a confrontational provision of contrary evidence, despite the fact that such strategies are more time- intensive. Third, social media is unlikely to be a fertile ground on which we will make meaningful progress in the fight against bullshit because of the inherent nature of social media platforms as spaces for short, declarative, confrontational claims. Keywords: fake news, bullshit, naïve skepticism, social media, epistemology of ignorance 1. -
Mass Media and the Transformation of American Politics Kristine A
Marquette Law Review Volume 77 | Issue 2 Article 7 Mass Media and the Transformation of American Politics Kristine A. Oswald Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.law.marquette.edu/mulr Part of the Law Commons Repository Citation Kristine A. Oswald, Mass Media and the Transformation of American Politics, 77 Marq. L. Rev. 385 (2009). Available at: http://scholarship.law.marquette.edu/mulr/vol77/iss2/7 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at Marquette Law Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Marquette Law Review by an authorized administrator of Marquette Law Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. MASS MEDIA AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF AMERICAN POLITICS I. INTRODUCTION The importance of the mass media1 in today's society cannot be over- estimated. Especially in the arena of policy-making, the media's influ- ence has helped shape the development of American government. To more fully understand the political decision-making process in this coun- try it is necessary to understand the media's role in the performance of political officials and institutions. The significance of the media's influ- ence was expressed by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: "The Press has become the greatest power within Western countries, more powerful than the legislature, the executive, and the judiciary. One would then like to ask: '2 By what law has it been elected and to whom is it responsible?" The importance of the media's power and influence can only be fully appreciated through a complete understanding of who or what the media are. -
V. 2.1 Gaslighting Citizens Eric Beerbohm and Ryan Davis1
v. 2.1 Gaslighting Citizens Eric Beerbohm and Ryan Davis1 [L]eaders...have argued that if their followers or subjects are not strong enough to stick to the resolution themselves, they—the leaders—ought to help them avoid contact with the misleading evidence. For this reason, they have urged or compelled people not to read certain books, writings, and the like. But many people need no compulsion. They avoid reading things, and so on. — Saul Kripke, “On Two Paradoxes of Knowledge” Politics invariably involves disagreement—some of it, unreasonable. If deep enough and fundamental enough, disagreement might be taken as a sign not only that one of the opposing disputants must be incorrect, but that someone may be somehow failing to respond to the available evidence in a minimally rational way. So begins a much sharper allegation: that one’s opponent is not just mistaken, but crazy. In a partisan world, the rhetorical force of this accusation is easily weaponized. If one’s opponents lack basic epistemic capacities, one does them no wrong by ignoring them, and encouraging others to ignore them as well. “Gaslighting”—or attempting to cause people to doubt their own attitudes or capacities—has quickly gained popularity as an explicitly political charge.2 Antagonists on the right and left both mutually accuse each other of gaslighting. They define the term similarly, so the disagreement looks substantive.3 But the opposing outlooks may share little besides the concept. This essay aims to understand gaslighting as a political phenomenon. It proceeds in six parts. First, we will sketch the concept of gaslighting as it has been developed in the philosophical literature. -
The Safety Valve and Substantial Assistance Exceptions
Federal Mandatory Minimum Sentences: The Safety Valve and Substantial Assistance Exceptions Updated February 22, 2019 Congressional Research Service https://crsreports.congress.gov R41326 SUMMARY R41326 Federal Mandatory Minimum Sentences: February 22, 2019 The Safety Valve and Substantial Assistance Charles Doyle Exceptions Senior Specialist in American Public Law Federal law requires a sentencing judge to impose a minimum sentence of imprisonment following conviction for any of a number of federal offenses. Congress has created three exceptions. Two are available in any case where the prosecutor asserts that the defendant has provided substantial assistance in the criminal investigation or prosecution of another. The other, commonly referred to as the safety valve, is available, without the government’s approval, for a handful of the more commonly prosecuted drug trafficking and unlawful possession offenses that carry minimum sentences. Qualification for the substantial assistance exceptions is ordinarily only possible upon the motion of the government. In rare cases, the court may compel the government to file such a motion when the defendant can establish that the refusal to do so was based on constitutionally invalid considerations, or was in derogation of a plea bargain obligation or was the product of bad faith. Qualification for the safety valve exception requires a defendant to satisfy five criteria. His past criminal record must be minimal; he must not have been a leader, organizer, or supervisor in the commission of the offense; he must not have used violence in the commission of the offense, and the offense must not have resulted in serious injury; and prior to sentencing, he must tell the government all that he knows of the offense and any related misconduct. -
In (Partial) Defense of Strict Liability in Contract
Michigan Law Review Volume 107 Issue 8 2009 In (Partial) Defense of Strict Liability in Contract Robert E. Scott Columbia University Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr Part of the Contracts Commons, and the Torts Commons Recommended Citation Robert E. Scott, In (Partial) Defense of Strict Liability in Contract, 107 MICH. L. REV. 1381 (2009). Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol107/iss8/4 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Michigan Law Review at University of Michigan Law School Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Michigan Law Review by an authorized editor of University of Michigan Law School Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. IN (PARTIAL) DEFENSE OF STRICT LIABILITY IN CONTRACT Robert E. Scott* Many scholars believe that notions of fault should and do pervade contract doctrine. Notwithstanding the normative and positive ar- guments in favor of a fault-based analysis of particular contract doctrines, I argue that contract liability is strict liability at its core. This core regime is based on two key prongs: (1) the promisor is li- able to the promisee for breach, and that liability is unaffected by the promisor'sexercise of due care orfailure to take efficient precau- tions; and (2) the promisor's liability is unaffected by the fact that the promisee, prior to the breach, has failed to take cost-effective precau- tions to reduce the consequences of nonperformance. I offer two complementary normative justificationsfor contract law's stubborn resistance to considerfault in either of these instances. -
On Bullshit in Cultural Policy Practice and Research: Notes from the British
Original citation: Belfiore, Eleonora, 1975-. (2009) On bullshit in cultural policy practice and research : notes from the British case. International Journal of Cultural Policy, Vol.15 (No.3). pp. 343-359. ISSN 1028-6632 Permanent WRAP url: http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/41199/ Copyright and reuse: The Warwick Research Archive Portal (WRAP) makes the work of researchers of the University of Warwick available open access under the following conditions. Copyright © and all moral rights to the version of the paper presented here belong to the individual author(s) and/or other copyright owners. To the extent reasonable and practicable the material made available in WRAP has been checked for eligibility before being made available. Copies of full items can be used for personal research or study, educational, or not-for- profit purposes without prior permission or charge. Provided that the authors, title and full bibliographic details are credited, a hyperlink and/or URL is given for the original metadata page and the content is not changed in any way. Publisher’s statement: This article is available under License to Publish, based upon the Attribution- NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND) license. Under this license others may download your works and share them with others as long as they credit you, but they can’t change them in any way or use them commercially. The License to Publish also allows for text- and data-mining of your works. A note on versions: The version presented in WRAP is the published version or, version of record, and may be cited as it appears here.